Competition Council head: penalties for violations of competition regulations will be stepped up in Latvia

The current applicable penalties are not harsh enough to prevent violations of competition regulations, therefore the Competition Council will step up the penalties for such violations, as the Competition Council's new head Skaidrite Abrama says in an interview with Nozare.lv business portal.

Abrama, who took office on June 26,
says she will concentrate on cases currently investigated by the Competition
Council, and look into the council's past work. The Competition Council will
analyze reasons for unwanted or possible deformations of the market in order to
prevent them. Communication with companies and society will also be highly
important in the Competition Council's further work, writes LETA.

"The Competition Council will
definitely be harsh with competition violations, and the penalties will be
stepped up – it is important that a violation carries adequate punishment. The
penal system in Latvia has not been stringent enough to prevent violations of
competition regulations. At the same time, we will do much preventive work
educating and informing companies, in order to prevent the development of an
environment where such violations are possible," said Abrama.

According to the Competition
Council's data, investigation into 60 cases was completed in 2011, and the
total amount of penalties that the Competition Council imposed for violations
of competition regulations was LVL 6.3 million last year.

The risk of cartels and companies
abusing their dominant position on the market still exists in Latvia, said
Abrama. At the moment, the Competition Council is investigating 17 cases on
suspected cartels and nine cases on companies abusing their dominant position
on the market.

"The number of these cases
proves that the trends have not changed and are unlikely to change in the
future. The Competition Council is working on various methodologies for
ascertaining the risk of cartels and abuse of dominant position, because market
participants unfortunately are rather passive in informing the council about
factors that violate competition on the market," said Abrama.

Furthermore, it is now much harder
to ascertain a violation of competition regulations than before. "Five
years ago, the Competition Council had to simply take a look at a contract to
establish a violation, but now such things can no longer be found in
contracts," explains Aboltina. That is why the Competition Council now more
often carries out inspections at companies, which is the only way to find
evidence, much of which comes from electronic documents, including
correspondence by e-mail.

As reported, the government
approved Competition Council employee Skaidrite Abrama as the council's new
chairwoman on June 12.

The chairperson of the Competition
Council is appointed for a five-year period by the government on the economy
minister's recommendation.

Abrama has a master's degree in
management from the University of Latvia. She has also studied at the Swiss
universities "Akad" and "Imaka", the Business Promotion
Institute at the Austrian Chamber of Commerce.

Abrama has been working at the
Competition Council from 2004 to 2009 as a council member, and a senior
economist from 2009 to 2011. Before that, Abrama worked as deputy director at
the "Internationaler Bund" Institute of Languages.

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